Jefferson Parish Housing Authority officials need to get off the public meal plan: An editorial

The list of local officials who see taxpayers as their personal entertainment account keeps expanding -- this week because of Barry Bordelon, executive director of the Jefferson Parish Housing Agency.

Mr. Bordelon charged more than $7,550 in meals to the agency's credit card between 2007 and 2009, records show. That included almost $5,100 in charges in 2008 alone.

That's way too much, and Mr. Bordelon's excuse for the expenditures is lame.

Mr. Bordelon, who's not the same Barry Bordelon who's Parish Councilman Elton Lagasse's aide, said the money was spent for him and the authority's executive board at meetings to manage emergency housing programs after hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Gustav in 2008. "You have to remember, back in that time, there were a lot of programs enacted by HUD going on," Mr. Bordelon said, referring to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development department.

But the housing authority's board members get per diems for their own meals, ranging from $300 a month for the chairperson to $150 a month for most board members. The per diems were created after HUD reprimanded the authority in 1989, when Mr. Bordelon was the board's chairman, for spending $2,000 on meals that year.

Mr. Bordelon clearly did not learn his lesson. He paid for the meal-a-thons in recent years using the authority's business accounts and not the board member's per diems.

His spending is minor league compared to James Bridger, the former New Orleans Public Belt Railroad executive who racked up more than $108,000 in meals and other credit card charges in a three-year period. But unlike the Public Belt, the housing authority is entirely financed by tax dollars. And any abuse of public credit cards is offensive.

Mr. Bordelon's agency was already facing questions about other questionable spending, including shelling out $9.6 million a year -- about a quarter of the authority's budget -- in administrative expenses. The authority is spending as if it printed its own money, and Mr. Bordelon's meal charges are another example of poor stewardship by him and the board.

Fortunately, HUD spokesman Donna White said the department will look into the agency's expenses. She also said Mr. Bordelon's credit card spending "sounds excessive."